Caddy has been taunting the BMW 3 series with the ATS for almost two years, in part because of the value proposition of the ATS 2.5L. Don't for a minute believe BMW is not paying attention.

Last year, one day after GM published its ATS specs, BMW modified its F30's specs on its website, in particular the 0-60 times were much faster than the day before. You think it was a fluke?

Now the F30 has a base model that undercuts the price of the ATS 2.5L by $545, one day after ATS gets the Car of the Year thing. Maybe it is another coincidence you say, but are you a betting person?

Nope. It's the opposite.

BMW has the 320i already in production, not like this is some new car. They see that Cadillac is advertising a cheap RWD car to the masses and attempting to create a new market. So they drop their existing 320i in there for a year, toe in the water, see how it goes, and kill two birds with one stone: a) capitalize on GM's advertising awareness and b) torpedo Mercedes, Audi, and Lexus. Good time to do it too- BMW just had the best year ever, lots of numbers to anniversary, might as well stack the deck with a sure-thing.